While its ancestor missed certain key features that would have made it a contender with the Canon and the 5D Mark II, the D800 plans to beat it all together.

Nikon has announced the new Nikon D800 DSLR, its middle-point camera system that will be placed between the D700 and the Nikon D4.

Nikon D800 Specs

Featuring a staggering 36.3 megapixel sensor, the D800 is aimed at the professional photographer who needs a more portable DSLR than the titanic D4.

While having a higher megapixel count does not always translate into better pictures (especially if sensor size remains unchanged), Nikon claims the D800 has noise levels comparable to the D700 while shooting images with 3x the resolution. Impressive, if it holds true. The FX-format sensor can produce TIFF images that can climb to a whopping 212 megabytes, so you'll need fast (and large) memory cards to do this sucker justice.

With many of the same advanced specs as the D4, the D800 can shoot full-HD, 1080p at 30 frames per second, or 720p at up to 60 frames per second.

The D800 also boasts an ISO range of 100-6400 (that can be expanded to 25600), making it suitable for shooting even in challenging light conditions. A speedy Expeed 3 processor gets it ready to shoot in 0.12 seconds.

The D800 comes equipped with a USB 3.0 port, a Nikon first. It's sort of a necessity - not a privilege - that you'll come to appreciate when transferring those mammoth-sized images for editing on your PC. You'll also get both an SD and a CF slot.
 

Nikon D800 features

The D800 features the same Advanced Recognition System found on the D4 which allows the camera to do much of the work for you, with a 51-point autofocus system.

An HDMI port allows you to output HD footage without compression, making it just as useful for sharing the images.

Nikon D800 price and release date

The Nikon D800 is not a cheap camera, no sir. Costing upwards of $3,000, it is definitely for those who are either a professional photographer or serious camera nuts. It’ll be available to buy in Europe by the end of March, and we'll let you know once it is available this side of the world. Like we always say, you can never have too many good cameras in the Middle-East.